This study attempted to assess family empowerment with participants in Access Vermont, a multilevel crisis intervention project for children with emotional disturbances and their families. The study used the Family Empowerment Scale, a scale based on two dimensions of empowerment level (comprised of family, service system, and community/political) and expression (comprised of attitudes, knowledge, and behavior). An analysis of use of the scale during interviews with 100 children or adolescents and their families produced three factors essential for empowerment: (1) self-efficacy (the primary caregiver's perception of her/his ability to obtain needed services for the child); (2) system advocacy (the caregiver's opinion on how effective she/he can be as an agent for change in the child's mental health care system); and (3) competence (the caregiver's feelings of competence as a parent). This three-factor solution explained 42 percent of the variance. The study plans to interview families again at 6 months, 1 year, and 2 years after intake to identify developmental changes in their reports of empowerment. (DB)